Category Archives: game night

game night

Oh what a wonderful day…

Fenland Gamers, game night

Yesterday was such an awesome amazing day. Not only was it my birthday, but it was also International Tabletop Day.

I'm not usually one for celebrating birthdays. However it was hard not to yesterday considering the alignment of the stars.

The day started off as you know with some Star Realms via the app. But not long after those initial posts I had to hit the road with a shed load of games and pick up my amazing birthday cake that Doreen created for me. After a chat with Sam and her daughter Zaphod in which we caught up on news, shocked me with the fact our gaming session in Wisbech that afternoon was being missed because Zaphod wanted to see an aging Canadian called Brian Adams singing some popular beats from way before Zaphod was a single cell, in Birmingham (apparently it was cheaper to see Mr Adams in Birmingham than to see him in their home town of Peterborough!!!). It was time for me to end a very long sentence that didn't really move the narrative of this post on, and head back to Wisbech and the afternoons gaming event.

With the weather being unusually good for a bank holiday weekend I should have realised that the A47 round Wisbech, and also going into Wisbech itself would be a mini nightmare. Which meant that I got caught up in what were mini traffic tailbacks. After winding my way through town via side roads I arrived not too late to our venue for the afternoons gaming.

Upon arrival Jonathan informed me Matt wasn't able to attend, but Debbie would be. I was just glad there was a trolley to move the games into the building.

With my selection of games and Jonathan's we had a wide variety of games, covering gateway games like Ticket to Ride, to complex euros like Caverna, and everything inbetween.

After a chat, I taught Jonathan Star Realms. It was going to be interesting to see how Jonathan got on. Why? Well scifi themed games are not his favourite theme, and he's also not a big fan of deckbuilders. So the odds were against it. However after pausing for Debbie's arrival, Jonathan went on to win the game, which he did not dislike. So I'm counting that as a win.

Our next game, and the first with Debbie was the current darling of the gaming echo chamber Quadropolis.

Having played Quadropolis I have to say I don't get why this is getting all the buzz that it is currently getting. After playing I was kind of left feeling indifferent. It wasn't a bad game, or a bad feeling of indifference (unlike Between Two Cities). I think the hardest thing is that I can't point at one thing like a mechanic that grabbed me and got me excited. But then I can flip that around and say there wasn't anything that I hated either.

I know that this game has been mentioned/compared to Dice City. And those comparisons have been in favour of Quadropolis being the better game. However I don't agree with that view. For me after a single play of both, Dice City edges it. But I'd happily play both again, maybe not go out of my way, but if some-one said “hey lets play…” I'd be ok with it.

On the plus side I won.

Debbie chose our next game which was Batman Fluxx.

Jonathan took the honours with this game.

We followed up the chaos that is Fluxx with some smash your face in, push your luck, monster bashing, King of Tokyo.

Debbie won our first monster mash up, but it was close if I'd had survived her turn, I would have won on victory points. It was a close game.

We then played again but this time with the Power Ups expansion. During this game I had bought the “it has a child!” card, that if you are eliminated gets discarded along with all your other cards and lose all your victory points, then heal back up to ten health and start again! This card gave me the win. After Jonathan was eliminated I stayed in Tokyo trading blows with Debbie, each of us knocking down the others health. Thing is I didn't care, I knew I was going to still be in the game if I got knocked out. So when that moment did come I lost the chance of a victory point win, but I had done enough damage to Debbie that it was easy to smash Debbie into the rubble of Tokyo and get the win.

I liked the addition of the power up cards. Especially because they give a use for the heart face when you roll them whilst occupying Tokyo. Plus the cards make your character a little unique, and the suspense of having these unknown ability that can be played at any moment. I like them a lot. The King of New York version of this expansion when it comes out will definitely be added to the collection.

After indescriminately destroying Tokyo with our epic battles, we headed off to the grand abbey to become novices, and take part in the hidden movement game Nuns on the Run.

We hadn't played this before, nor read the rules (which wouldn't be the last time this happened during the day). Apart from nearly sending Debbie into a coma whilst reading the rules from a truly atrocious rules book. I think this game would be better with more players. Although functional and playable with three, we had Debbie playing the two nuns we were trying to avoid. Still it felt ok. Just that awful rule book needs a reworking.
Just so the gaming records are kept up to date Debbie won.
Our last game before taking a break for tea was Splendor. After reminding Debbie of the rules, Jonathon went on to grab the victory.
The food break was at Wetherspoons, and Jonathan very generously treated me to my meal. Which saw all of us settling on a burger with sides of chips and onion rings, and a pint of cider (I can't remember which one but It was a favourite of Jonathan and Debbie's).
Fully fed and refreshed it was back to the table.
Our final game of the day was Glass Road.

Another new game to use all. Although I think Jonathan had played it using the app. I think by the end it took us around two hours to play this game. Which apparently should have taken forty minutes or so. Why did it take us so long? We were playing the game incorrectly!!! Calling the first two rounds of play a train wreck would be partially true. Maybe the wording of the rule book could be clearer in certain instances.

With only the last round being played correctly, Debbie went on to get the win. But is it a valid win! That counts?

I have to say despite being a minor train wreck in reality, and over long play time. I still enjoyed the game. It didn't seem to drag. There are things to like, such as if a card is played by another player and its in your hand you get to play that card to and cut down the number of actions the other player can do. The resource management and the moving dial giving the automatic production of bricks and glass is cool. I also liked the hand selection with the second guessing what others might also be choosing.

I definitely want to play this again with the correct rules.

What a fantastic day yesterday was. A day of surprise generosity of others, great gaming. You couldn't want for more. I really do feel blessed.

How did your Tabletop Day go?

 

Tabletop Day Is Here

Fenland Gamers, game night, news

 

Don't forget today is International Tabletop Day, there are loads of events going on. Fenland Gamers have a gaming session going on from midday until the evening. You don't have to attend the whole thing, pop in and pop out whenever you want. Message me through the contact page if you want to come along for details.

Or why not pop along to your FLGS or for some it may just be LGS to see what they have going on? And like the lottery if you are really lucky it may be one of the few stores with a Tabletop promo kit.

I'm taking a variety of games with me to the Fenland Gamers one, such as Splendor, Suburbia, Codenames, Five Tribes, Nations the Dice Game, Elder Sign, Batman Love Letter plus others. Then other members will be bringing games from their collection. So we will have a wide variety of games, some gateway games, some more “gamer” games. And that's the point this is a great time to try out new games, genres, themes.

I do hope that you get a chance to go along to an event and play some games.

You can look for registered events on this page HERE

 

Peddle to the metal

Fenland Gamers, formula d, game night

Last night saw the inaugural race of the Fenland Gamers Formula D league.

We chose for our first race the Valencia race track from the Circuits 2 pack for the game. After some great indecision amongst ourselves we decided that the races for our league would consist of two laps of the track. Something we hadn't done before, and also meant we would have pit stops too. Another new thing for us playing the game.

For the inaugural season of our league we are using the basic rules for the game.

So which brave souls decided to risk all whizzing round the tarmac for fame and fortune? First up on the grid in pole position was Katie, taking second place on the starting grid was Jo, in the third starting position was myself and in last position on the grid was Jonathan.

Jonathan repeating his “dice hate me” rolling from when we play Memoir '44 rolled so that he stalled his engine. Katie and Jo made good use of their advantageous starting positions on the grid, and took an early lead, battling it out for pole position. Katie edged in front, as I caught up and did battle for second place with Jo.

With great negotiation of the corners Katie extended her lead, enabling her to take a pit stop and continue as if nothing had happened. Jo and I also pit stopped, with me getting the edge and getting back out first. Meanwhile in the Lewis Hamilton position Jonathan was doing his best to catch up and took the risky tactical decision of not stopping for a pit stop.

That decision quickly came back to haunt him when he over shot the first corner big time and took enough damage to take him out of the race.

Katie was so far out in front there was no way Jo or I would catch her up. As she cruised over the finish line, Jo and I were left battling over second and third spots. Jo edged out in front. On the penultimate corner I snatched the lead back and held on to it to grab second place. Leaving Jo to finish in third.

We followed up Katie's emphatic victory in our first Formula D race with a game of cunning and bluffing, Batman Love Letter. By the end of the first round Katie had three points, one more in the next round it would be another win for her.

Luckily my mind reading act guessed her card and forced her out of the round before she had a chance to grab the win. Jonathan used this opportunity to score a couple of points.

Our final round was won quickly with Katie guessing my card to give her the final point needed for victory.

The final game of the evening was King of Tokyo. As our kaiju (I think that is the correct Japanese term for these monsters) battled it out over Tokyo I was watching the others rack up victory points leaving me with only one real tactic if I was to win, be the last one standing.

Katie's luck had run out, she was the first to be eliminated. Not long after Jo managed to knock out Jonathan, but in doing so left herself open to a final blow from myself to grab the win.

A great start to our Formula D league, race two happens in a months time.

Superheroes and Giant Monsters

game night

Friday The Luxe finally got Batman vs Superman Dawn of Justice on its screen. I'd been waiting for my favourite cinematic experience venue to get the movie, so I caught the 14:10 showing of the movie.

I enjoyed the movie. However it has a lot of faults. I just hope Warner Bros/DC learn from this movie and never ever ever let Zack Snyder the director near the DC Universe again. However I doubt that is the take away they got. Especially considering that they are adding humour now to an already complete movie that has that abomination looking Joker in it.

If Synder had not decided to try and squeeze as many plot lines as he could into a single movie, and instead concentrated on a single one, the movie would have been much better.

While DC seem to have got the tv universe right with their shows, they still don't get it with their movies. Such a pity.

I'd love to go more in depth but this isn't that sort of blog.

After seeing the latest DC cinematic efforts it was time for some gaming.

After last week this session was last chance saloon. Compared to last week this week was very poorly attended by the late teen/twenty somethings of the group. Which did have one big bonus from my point of view none of that loud music being played.

But it does make me wonder what is it about this week that attendance for the gaming groups has been low?

The evenings gaming started off with my Noise running against Ben's PE Corp scum deck. I had tweeted it to improve my economy. I lost both games to meat/net damage. The first game was within a couple of turns. Whilst the second time if my I've Had Worse had gotten selected in the first wave of damage I would have survived the second wave of damage, gotten through on R&D and scored three agendas for a win. Fortune favours the brave and that evening it didn't favour me.

Our next game was a couple of plays of King of Tokyo. I didn't win either game, the honours for the wins were shared between Ben and Jamie. This was my first play of King of Tokyo, I had played King of New York before. But I've tried to blot that evening out, and the memory of Nath (not my son) and his mind scaring bum note joke. I thought that King of Tokyo would be the easier game to teach out of the two, plus I have both expansions for the game, we could shake things up if we wanted to. Both games had the costume cards from the Halloween expansion mixed in. This doesn't make any noticeable change to the game play, so I hadn't seen a reason to take them out.

The final game of the evening was Deep Sea Adventure. This was a hit with Ben and Jamie. It's a nice little push your luck game. It's interesting to see how different players play the game. Previous games my opponents went deep before taking a treasure and starting the clock ticking on the air running out. Whilst in this game treasures were being taken very early and starting that clock. This meant that no one managed to score in the first two rounds. With only timid play enabling some scores in the final round.

I'm still undecided about this group. I had a good experience this week. But will it be back to the usual irritating loud music next week when the numbers are back up?

Life, don’t talk to me about life

Fenland Gamers, game night, pandemic, pandemic legacy season 1

Yesterday it was Queen Elizabeth II 90th birthday. To celebrate the local council organised a birthday cake and giant card for the serfs of Wisbech to sign and munch on.

The Mayor (I'm sure he's got an evil plan just like the one in season three of Buffy) turned up to cut the cake and make a short speech to a crowd of locals eager for cake. Yeah the crap we will put up with for free cake. To add to the occasion the vintage fire engine was also out on display.

In the evening our Scooby gang met up to tackle the month of September in Pandemic Legacy Season 1.

After a short discussion about the misplay from the previous month, we decided to play as if we hadn't made completed the immunologists goals yet, well we hadn't. And that was the misplay, or egg on face bit.

Apart from the objective of finding the virologist which we needed to do as part of finding the bits we needed for the immunologist. We now had to find the paranoid soldier.

As is normal we started with one objective complete, we had a military base in each of the zones. The faded were starting to build up, we had cures for two diseases, close to finding the virologist, and on the way to finding that paranoid soldier.

We had a lucky break and found the paranoid soldier. Another goal achieved, one cure and September was ours. Box six was opened, as the cards were read progressing the story, “wait! What? No go back what was that?”

NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Colonel Mustard was a traitor to the group! WTF???? He was lost, and had to be torn up. Our means of controlling the faded gone. For the rest of the game I'm a civilian.

OMG!!! The objective we auto complete is gone, replaced with a new one. What's just happened? We were further away from victory.

It turns out CoDa is all part of a complicated plot by a group called Zodiac, and was man made back at the CDC in Atlanta. We now had to start destroying military bases as acts of sabotage against the military plot of Zodiac.

Matt managed to destroy one military base, we just needed to get round again to him to do the second one. Jonathan had the cure for our final disease ready to go.

However we ran out of the faded to place on the board and therefore had an instant loss. The game had given us hope and then delivered a crushing soul destroying blow to us.

Apart from the hurt of losing another character (yeah I need to choose a new one for the September replay), the plot twist is cool, it wasn't cool losing a completed objective.

But this story is rather cool, I have loved the two major plot twists of the faded and now Zodiac. The searching for characters is good touch also. I am enjoying this story driven element of the game.

There wasn't enough time to do the second attempt at September that will have to wait until next week.

 

For the giggles

Ashes, chatteris warlords, game night
A lovely sunny spring day, having a life and commitments, whatever the reason it was a small turn out for last nights meetup to play games at the Chatteris Warlords.
As usual a variety of games were being played. March Jamie was constructing a Magic commander deck. A game of Bolt Action once more pitted allied forces against axis forces. Whilst Cthulhu had infiltrated the Fluxx universe in Cthulhu Fluxx. In a far corner four player Star Realms was taking place, followed by a just for the giggles game of Warhammer 40k Conquest by a couple of players.
My gaming for the evening saw me playing Robert at Ashes once a group discussion about Wizkids and how horrid their release schedule was with their games.

I was playing the constructed deck for Maeoni, while Robert played the constructed deck for Nessa. Instead of selecting our starting five cards we just dealt the top five of the deck to make up our first five. Well it made sense since we didn't know the decks or what cards would be good to start with.

I like that Ashes has suggested decks for all of the six Phoenixborn in the base box. It does allow noobs to the game to get up and running straight away, and then allow them to move onto deck building.

Despite loosing, I was only able to get gilders out, and the silver snake didn't make it until it was too late, I enjoyed playing.

Maybe we were playing slower than experienced players but we were noobs to the game after all.

The dice as a resource you have to manage is a great idea that works well. It'd be great to play this more often. Hopefully it will catch on. Then I can delve into the deck building side. Deck building is fun.

My second game of the evening and last was a couple of games of Cthulhu Fluxx. I broke even here with a win and a loss. My win was even sweeter than normal because it was given to me. March Jamie played an action that involved collecting up all the keepers and creepers out in front of people, shuffle them, then deal them back out to everyone. We had a few of both. Guess what got dealt to me? Yep the keeper and creeper that were needed to meet the active goal. I instantly won. Sweet.

Some great gaming again, well worth the thirty min drive.

 

Two Down One To Go

Cthulhu Realms, game night
With life events putting a stick in the spokes of life's bike, Ben was unable to attend the Friday night gaming group in Wisbech. Which meant that our gaming plans were also in chaos. I hadn't bought anything with me to play, because I had been expecting to play Agricola.
So my first game of the evening was my second game ever of Cthulhu Realms. If you remember I'm not a big fan of this “improved” Star Realms. Unlike Star Realms there is zero buzz for the game. Even with the imminent release of an app version (apparently due in next month or so) I don't think this will change.
I think Cthulhu Realms does have better rules for multiplayer. Particular how it handles the trade row, or rows in this case, and dealing the damage out to the players on either side of you. But these rules can be adopted in a multiplayer game of Star Realms. Which I may well do.
I still dislike the iconography, and decoding. Yes more plays will make it easier. But I'm very loath to put that effort in.
Playing the game this second time didn't warm me to the game, I'm still frosty about it.
Next up instead of Agricola we played a five player game of Caverna.
“Have you played Caverna?”
“No”
“Don't worry it's just like playing Agricola”
“Er I've not played that either”

I'd say the rules explanation at best could be described as lacking. Much of the start of the game was spent in frustration.

Ok, it's worker placement. I worked that out. Oh wheat gives me points at end, and can be used for food. Cool. I can work with that. Sadly I wouldn't work with that if I'd known it was half a point per wheat token I had.

Happily breeding pigs and sheep. Oh they are worth points at the end. Cool. What if I don't have a cow or dog I get negative points?!!! Why wasn't this mentioned at the start, but left to scoring.

Why were they levelling up their dwarfs? What benefit did that give you?

Ok you get the picture. It was like playing a game with a fog of war. The rules were need to know, and I didn't need to know.

I can't say I really enjoyed the game. But I think that is down more to being in the dark a lot.

Plus on top of all that another week with that bloody loud music being played. One more shot I think then my Friday's may just be free again. This group is fast becoming an unpleasant experience.

 

Fenland Gamers April 16 Meetup

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night saw the monthly meetup of the Fenland Gamers.

Our first game of the evening was the latest “accidental” addition to Jonathan's collection, the chilli growing themed game Scoville.

Wow is the game good, and I'm not just saying this because I won. Ok won is an understatement I knocked it out the park.

There is a lot to love about this game. Each round (apart from the first where the order is selected at random) the players bid in a blind auction for the right to choose where they want to go in the turn order. You may actually want to be last guaranteed! In our game I was the highest bidder and first most rounds. I was using the market to keep topping up my cash each round to power this. After the order has been sorted, players form first to last get to choose an auction card from an auction row. These cards give you extra chillies dependent on what is depicted on the card. So one card may give you a black chilli, while another may give you a yellow, green and blue.

I love the auction mechanic for deciding turn order. Whether it's a blind auction like this or the one in Five Tribes. So much is involved in that bid you make. How important is it you go first? What is the least I can spend to make sure I get the position I want? Etc.

I loved the fact that the last (fulfilment) and first (planting) stage of a round went in the order first to last. Then in the middle, harvesting the order gets reversed. So it may be important that you go first harvesting to get that particular coloured chilli you need. Which means winning that blind auction and putting your marker last is an option.

Fulfilment is cool too. Being able to complete recipes for points, and/or buy from the farmers market to gain combinations of points, money and chillies. So I could trade two green chillies to get four points, three coins and a brown chilli. Plus I can sell chillies to get money. Of which the price is decided by the number of chillies of that colour being sold that have been planted divided by two.

When planting chillies you can also score points by planting a chilli that matches one of the trophy tokens (which vary in value). So there are lots of scoring opportunities through out the game.

You also get three bonus tokens that give you extra abilities, like planting an extra chilli, or moving one ,pore space and changing direction. However if you don't use them they are worth extra points at the end of the game. This is very similar to the bonus abilities in Seasons.

How many recipes, chillies, money etc you have is all hidden information. And there is a player screen provided for each player for them to hide their bits behind. So you are having to remember who is going for what.

The wooden chilli tokens are awesome. I would like to have seen some bigger size coins. They are on the small side. Plus the player screens could be larger. Having holes in the game board the shape of the chilli tokens to hold them in place really works.

Overall I love this game a lot. Like the theme this game is hot! Definitely going on the wish list.

We followed up Scoville with intrigue and political manoverings by playing Council of Verona.

For such a “simple” game, this is really good. It has a mini card draft where you are drafting cards to help you to hopefully achieve the agenda of a character on the cards. Not all characters have agendas some have abilities that allow you to switch cards around, or tokens.

The game plays quickly, which is lucky because it took one play through for everyone to get the game.

It's a shame this game and it's expansions are at best a pain to get in the UK. And describing it as a pain is an understatement. I think this would be far far more popular if it was easier to get. It's quick to play, has a surprising bit of depth to it. Plus if you are teaching Romeo and Juliet (the world it is set in) this would make a great game for students to play.

The evening ended up with Love Letter The Hobbit (nope not going to use the full name it's too long winded, mind you it would be shorter than this little aside) and everyone type casting me as a hobbit or dwarf!

Every time the others played a Smaug, “Darren, are your Bilbo?” Or “Darren, are you Thorin?” Or “Darren, are you Killi or Filli?” Not “Darren, are you Legolas?” Or some other non vertically challenged race/person.

Nope little digs at my height, beard and receding hair line where the order of the day.

The game of hate on Darren, ended in a draw between myself and Gavin, as time had ran out.

Another great evening of gaming.

 

Street Magic in Chatteris

chatteris warlords, game night, netrunner

Last night was the now weekly journey from the frontier town that is Wisbech to further into the depths of the fens and the outpost town of Chatteris. The things we do to play games!

My first game of the evening saw Noise returning to the table to run against the Jinteki Personal Evolution. It felt good to have him back running. I really am an anarch at heart. My opening hand had Street Magic and Same Old Thing, plus a Hivemind and Streetpeddler. I decided to keep my cards.

The Corp scum took an early lead, after establishing a scoring server protected by three pieces of ice. I had none of my ice breakers (ok that's basically Faust and David, with a little help from Parasite and Datasucker) out. I did get Datasucker out early and an incubator.
The Corp did score an early Chronos Project taking out about five cards. The second one they scored took a larger chunk of cards out. Apparently this deck had been designed to cater for my Noise. Isn't that sweet?
My problem this game was econ, and not getting my ice breakers out. Aesops didn't appear to near the end, and the same for Faust.
I did score a couple of agendas, one from Archives and the other from R&D. And I could have won if I had the credits to score the agenda.
Looking back I think I should have done a mulligan on the starting hand. But I didn't want to lose that Street Magic.
I also got to play Star Fluxx. As usual this game is beautifully chaotic. Just when I thought I was going to win, but my plan was thwarted. Allowing the player after me to grab the win.
My final game of the evening was introducing Ben and some others to Love Letter The Hobbit Battle of the Five Armies. That's a bit of a mouthful so I just call it Love Letter Hobbit.
I do like this version of Love Letter, but not the gem tokens. So I replaced them with small blue cubes. I love the touches like the one ring having a zero value all during the round until the end when it gets a value of seven. Or Legolas and Tauriel having different win conditions.
Batman Love Letter is still my favourite but this is damn close. Still neither Ben or I won.
Yes there was some Bolt Action last night. Over in another corner was a group doing a draft cube of Magic.

It did seem quieter than usual last night. But then there are going to be nights like this.

There was also a club committee meeting last night. Basically it was blah blah blah to me, well I'm not a committee member, but Ben is, and it was held during our Netrunner game! So while that was on hold I was at a lose end. Which eventually saw me passing the time playing Star Fluxx.

I was called into the meeting to confirm I was volunteered (thanks Ben) to help out on the clubs Facebook page.

But as usual another fun evening of gaming in the depths of the fens.

August and everything after

Fenland Gamers, game night, pandemic, pandemic legacy season 1

After an intermission last night the A Team were back fighting to save the world.

Each month we start with an objective completed, because we have military bases in each of the zones. It's a nice feeling knowing we only have two objectives to complete.

Before August started we had some cards to read. Suddenly we weren't just searching for a virologist but also an immunologist. Another search board was added. This time we had to be in a rioting faded city to look for them.

We had a new character join our team Colonel Mustard, he had been drafted in to replace my quarantine specialist who unfortunately died in July. Mustard had the ability to spend an action to remove a faded figure from a city, plus he could freely move through roadblocks. Plus as a character upgrade when he left a city with faded on it one of them gets removed. With all that cool stuff he also had a draw back. For Mustard to cure a disease he needs to have two extra cards of the correct colour to cure it. Mustard was going to be our engine for controlling the faded.

With a little help from Jonathan and Debbie, Mat was able to find this new elusive immunologist. Lots of stickers were added to the rule book to cover the new stuff bought to the game.

This is where (just been looking up some stuff, and discovered this) we have done a MASSIVE misplay!!!!

We had discovered two cures, starting to look at the third when outbreaks overtook us and we had lost.

August reset time for our second attempt. We needed a win else we would be opening that mysterious box four.

We'd won! Our player deck was dangerously low. So pretty close. It helped having the Colonel keeping the faded down. He even cured a disease! Ok it took seven cards but he did it.

I'm loath now to talk about the win and how we got there, or my thoughts on the immunologist and the bits we missed played.

I'm not sure how we move forward with the misplay. It's going to have to be a group discussion on our next play.

Once we have a decision then I'll come back and look at the bits. At the moment I feel dirty and foolish.